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At least some of these demonstrations, especially the Asia-related ones, were confirmed by commenters on Boing Boing. We’ll also testify to having seen the Middle Eastern example once or twice. And the underlying message – that there are regional variations in how people handle paper money – is undeniably true and kind of neat.
But other parts of the video seem wildly implausible. We ran the Russia stuff by a couple of Eastern European natives and came up empty, while the Turkmenistan method is absurd on its face. Although they are very, very crazy in Turkmenistan so who knows.
Take a look at see what you think. We’re inclined to go with “fake but accurate” – fake examples, accurate theme – but maybe you’ve come across some of these.
Of course the whole spectacle begs a more fundamental question: it’s the 21st century, who still uses paper money?